Saratoga Closing Day Ends Byrnes' NYRA Career Chapter

The Hopeful Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course is a race intended to point out stars of the future. Though for one of the New York Racing Association's most liked and respected officials, it will mark the end of a long and stellar career. Once entries were taken for the Sept. 1 Hopeful, Andrew Byrnes closed his notebook filled with pouches, slips, and notations for the final time. After 26 years as NYRA's stakes coordinator, Byrnes will be retiring following Monday's closing-day card at the Spa, ending a tenure at New York tracks that dates to 1984 when he was a teenaged student who spent his summers working in the mailroom. "Andrew has done his job at a high level for a long time and he will be missed. He has created some impressive relationships all across the industry," said Andrew Offerman, NYRA's senior vice president of racing and operations. "You can't replace a person like that overnight. He deserves everything he gets out of retirement." Horsemen also had profuse praise for Byrnes, noting he was always a fair and calm voice in a pressure-packed industry. "Andrew has been such a consistent, knowledgeable member of the NYRA team," trainer Chad Brown said. "I've worked closely with him for years. He is a guy who is never in a bad mood. He is consistently helpful and professional. I've never even had a hint he was in a bad mood. That's a very admirable quality. This is a tough environment to remain happy and positive because it's so competitive and there's so much pressure." Offerman noted the integrity Byrnes brought to the position. "I think he was very fair, open and transparent with everyone," Offerman said. "People always knew what they were going to get when they talked to him. He was great at providing people with the information they needed but doing it with the utmost integrity and respect so they felt he was dealing with them like he would anyone else." Though 58 may be considered a tad young for retirement, Byrnes says he's ready to enjoy some free time after a career that consumed so much of his life. "The time was right. You want to retire before you are too old and feeble to enjoy it," Byrnes said. "The good thing about retirement is that you don't need to have a plan. I want to travel. I have an older brother in Switzerland and my other brother lives in North Carolina. I'd like to spend some time visiting them, which I haven't been able to do because of this job. That's the immediate goal. I can also do something with the church or do volunteer work. I won't be bored." As much as Byrnes is looking forward to spending time with his family—or watching New York Mets games—he will miss the family of co-workers and horsemen he built at NYRA. "What I'll miss most is dealing with the people," he said. "I've made some special friendships. I've met a tremendous amount of really, really nice people throughout the years and having that interaction with them is what I am going to miss most. I'll miss the office banter. "It's like walking into a clubhouse. We all get along and like to needle each other. It's a fun environment." Byrnes expressed thanks to a long list of former bosses and co-workers such as Lenny Hale, Terry Meyocks, Frank Gabriel, and P. J. Campo. In particular, he was appreciative of lessons learned from Mike Lakow, a former NYRA racing secretary who now heads the racing department at Gulfstream Park, and NYRA's former director of racing operations Martin Panza. "Mike gave me a shot and we worked together great," Byrnes said. "What made Mike so good was that you could disagree with him and he'd listen and ask your reasons why. He respected people's opinions and if they made sense he would incorporate them. He made you feel like you were part of a team." He said Panza taught him a great deal about recruiting horses from outside of New York. "Martin was a big influence on me and how I did my job. He taught me a lot of things about getting horses, especially international horses," Byrnes said. "If I was starting a racetrack anywhere, Martin would be the first guy I'd call, hands down." Byrnes said he appreciated the way Offerman let him do what he does best. "Andrew is very respectful and values my opinion. He allowed me to do what I do and not mettle too much. He allows the people below him the latitude to do their job and that's the sign of a good manager," said Byrnes, who will be replaced by Eric Johnston. Byrnes played an integral role in constructing a legion of famous cards at New Yorks tracks, but he said he takes the most pride in the consistency of his work over the years. "It's not that you forget the days. You have to move on," Byrnes said. "You can't rest on your laurels. So I'm proudest of the hard work and dedication I put into all races. There was consistency. The other races are important to owners and trainers, so they needed to be important to me." Byrnes, who grew up near Aqueduct Racetrack in Rockaway, played basketball and baseball at Christ the King High School and that competitive spirit carried over to work as the stakes coordinator when he battled with other circuits for top horses. "Being an ex-ballplayer, it became a challenge to fill races and you take it personal to a degree," said the Floral Park resident. "It was competition for me. It's like, it's my program and I take pride in it. I gave it 100% to get the best fields you could, whether it's the winter or Saratoga. You try to treat each race with equal enthusiasm and no one took it harder than me if a race didn't fill, which thankfully has been rare, or we didn't get the quality that you expected in a certain race. That competition drove me and motivated me." Through all of the years, be it working in the mailroom, or as a horse identifier, or as stakes coordinator, he never considered his job "work." "I started in the mailroom in the summer when I was going to school and made some connections that paid off when I decided I wanted to work here. I just wanted a chance to work in the racing business," Byrnes said. "Whatever job I had at NYRA, I thought I had the best job in the world. For so many years I felt like I was a crook stealing money because it never felt like a job. I've been so blessed."